Motor News

Chevrolet has released an official image showing the 2024 Blazer EV SS in full.It will use GM’s Ultium battery packs, like the Equinox EV and many other upcoming GM EVs.This mid-size electric SUV will go on sale in spring 2023 and more details are coming July 18.The Blazer nameplate has adorned many different sizes and shapes of Chevy SUVs over the decades, and now we know what the latest version—the 2024 Blazer EV—will look like. It appears to be a futuristic take on the current gas-powered Blazer, a somewhat aggressively styled mid-size crossover, with quite a different stance thanks to its large wheels, long wheelbase, and short front and rear overhangs. What you see here is the SS version, which presumably means it will offer a higher level of performance compared with the lesser trim levels.

We’ve known that the Blazer EV was coming for a while now, as it was announced alongside the upcoming Equinox EV as part of Chevy’s expanding electric lineup. But this is our best look yet at the Blazer ahead of its reveal that will take place on July 18, aside from a few teasers from a few months ago. The Blazer will be the first EV model to use Chevy’s “SS” performance moniker, which makes us wonder how much extra horsepower it will have. From what we can see in this image, the SS badge is visible on the front grille and it has large Continental tires wrapped around 12-spoke wheels.We know that the Blazer will use GM’s Ultium battery packs, but we don’t know what sizes will be offered. Expect both single- and dual-motor powertrains to be offered, with the SS coming standard with the most powerful AWD setup and the lower-priced models, possibly including LT, RS, and Premier trims, having less powerful single-motor configurations as standard.More Blazer EV specs will be released in July, including range estimates, horsepower and torque ratings, and possibly even pricing. Chevy says the Blazer EV will go on sale in Spring 2023, and we think the SS version will be available before other models.
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• This 1990 Honda CRX Si in Rio Red is our pick for today’s favorite Bring a Trailer auction.• The second-gen CRX Si’s fun-to-drive nature was a byproduct of its light curb weight, sophisticated suspension, and manual-only gearbox.• It’s currently bidding at $20,000 with three days left until the auction ends on Thursday, June 16.Full disclaimer: I love the Honda CRX Si. I’m also the proud owner of a less-than-pristine 1990 example in the infamous Y-49 (Barbados Yellow) paint code. Unfortunately, my CRX Si is currently out of commission, as several mechanical issues await my free time and attention, both of which are in short supply these days. While mine collects dust in the garage, it’s fun fantasizing that I could adopt this fresh-looking ’90 CRX Si. It’s currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

Bring a Trailer

While I’m not a big fan of the BaT version’s Rio Red (R-63 code) paint, it’s the CRX’s unique shape and clean design that I think looks good in any color. Honda’s designers brilliantly transformed the otherwise square Civic hatchback into a sexy coupelike hatch with a rear roofline that dives into a distinctive Kamm tail. Equally unique is the CRX’s translucent tail panel, which further contributes to the cabin’s airy vibe and excellent outward visibility. Inside, the sportiness continues with its exclusive two-seater configuration. A pair of nicely bolstered buckets with cloth upholstery and red-striped inserts provide support and a good amount of comfort. Back in 1990, the CRX Si didn’t have airbags, let alone touchscreens or digital frippery. Its dashboard is refreshingly simple, with clear analog gauges and a center stack slightly canted towards the driver. In typical Honda fashion, the flat surface on top of the dash was designed to incorporate functional storage space.

Bring a Trailer

At the heart of every ’90 CRX Si is a 105-hp 1.6-liter inline-four. That output is puny by modern standards, but with a curb weight that’s similarly low compared with contemporary sport compacts, its power-to-weight ratio helps it feel peppier than the numbers indicate. Plus, it only came with a five-speed manual gearbox, so swapping cogs to keep the fuel-injected 16-valve four-pot on boil continues to contribute to the fun factor.

Although it’s a front-wheel-drive car, the CRX Si has surprisingly neutral handling. For its second and final generation (1988–1991), the spunky two-door adopted a more sophisticated suspension setup that independently flexes at all four corners. Compared with regular CRX models of the same vintage, the Si has a thicker front anti-roll bar, a rear anti-roll bar, stiffer shocks, and wider tires mounted on 14-inch rims. In 1990, it also adopted standard four-wheel disc brakes as well as some other cosmetic updates.The version in this BaT listing shows 12,000 miles on the odometer, however, its Carfax report includes inconsistencies and there are other exemptions that mean its actual mileage is unknown. This and several minor scuff marks shown in the photos are the blemishes that accompany this 1990 CRX Si, which currently has a high bid of $20,000. The auction ends in three days on Thursday, June 16.

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Forza Motorsport comes to Xbox Series consoles and PC, it was announced at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 on Sunday.The new Forza Motorsport features new tracks such as the South African Kyalami Grand Prix circuit and a fictional Japanese high-speed course called Circuit Hakone. Fuel and tire management and increased car customization options are said to make this Forza the most in-depth and realistic experience yet. It’s expected out next spring.It’s been five years since the last iteration of Turn 10 Studio’s Forza Motorsport 7 launched, and that game was released a full gaming-console generation ago on Windows 10 and Xbox One. Time flies when you’re playing video games, and after watching the ray-traced gameplay of the new Forza Motorsport coming to Xbox Series consoles and PC—announced over the weekend—we kind of wish we could fast-forward to its launch next spring.

Players will be able to experience racing in extremely detailed 4K resolution. It’s not just the stones and cracked tarmac that add to the immersion; the trailer also showed insanely realistic-looking engine bays in amazing detail with heat wrap, carbon fiber, buckles, bolts, and linkages, even down to the backshells on the MIL-spec wire harness fittings. It looks great, but Turn 10 Studios promises the largest changes will be felt on the racetrack.

Turn 10 Studios

An updated damage engine allows cars to trade paint and wear battle wounds with added realism. Although it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to make bumpers tear away or convert DPi Prototypes into convertibles, the scratches and bruises appear far more in-depth in this new title than ever before.
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There’s also an overhauled driving physics engine. The new feel of Forza Motorsport should highlight added features such as fuel management and tire changes, as well as the ability to finally choose different tire compounds. Ambient temperature will also affect track surface temperatures, and Turn 10 Studios says that as more rubber is laid down, the car’s behavior will change.To add realism to its virtual stage, Forza Motorsport used photogrammetry and 3D material scans to render grass, rocks, weeds, and clouds into the game. While games like Gran Turismo 7 only offer the visual enhancement of ray-tracing during replays and in specific photo modes, Forza Motorsport can do it all the time—even when you’re using the car ahead of you as a brake in Turn 1.Forza Motorsport launched on Xbox Series consoles and PC sometime in spring 2023. Pricing and preorder bundles haven’t been announced yet, but it’s included with Xbox GamePass subscription and playable on launch.
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The 2023 Porsche 911 GTS cabriolet is available as a limited-production, specially designed America Edition.Its unique styling is highlighted by Azure Blue 356 paint, a black windshield surround, and Porsche’s first tri-finish wheels.Along with being limited to North America, all 115 copies are rear-drive, stick-shift convertibles—just like the original 356 America roadster.Back in the early ’50s, Max Hoffman was the first to import Porsches to the United States, and his success helped convince the German automaker to specially build a less expensive and lighter version of the 356 that was only for U.S. customers. It became the roofless, stripped-down 1953 Porsche 356 America roadster featuring a 70-hp flat-four engine. Only 16 examples were ever built, but it inspired the iconic 356 Speedster, and now—70 years later—its U.S.-bred formula was the inspiration for the 2023 Porsche 911 GTS cabriolet America Edition.
The America roadster model reemerged in 1992 and 1993 as a member of the 964 generation. It was a Carrera 2 cabriolet with the wider body, brakes, suspension, and 17-inch Porsche Cup wheels from the Turbo of the same vintage. Like the 964 America roadster, the ’23 911 GTS cabriolet America Edition shares some parts with the contemporary 911 Turbo. Its twin-turbo 3.0-liter flat-six is also the same heart as the Carrera S’s, except with 30 more horsepower (473 total) and an extra 30 pound-feet of torque (420 total).

Unlike a regular 2023 GTS, the America Edition is only offered as a cabriolet with rear-wheel drive and a manual transmission. Those three ingredients have been at the core of every America roadster, from the 356 to the 964, and now with the America Edition of the 992 generation. While Porsche built 250 copies of the America-themed 964, the company says it will only build 115 of the 2023 iteration, with 100 allocated for the U.S. and the other 15 destined for Canada. Thanks to a unique appearance and special interior appointments, it should be easy to identify the new one.
The 2023 911 America was specially designed by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur. It honors the original with Azure Blue 356 paint, which is reserved for this car for the 2023 model year. Accenting the exclusive hue are side decals in red and white with “America” written on them. On its butt is “911 Carrera” in white and “GTS” in red. Porsche says this is the first time it has used different-colored badges. It’s also the first time the windshield frame on the cabriolet has been wrapped in black, a design choice that was made to evoke the thin pillars on the original. Arguably the most striking detail on the new America Edition is its tri-finished wheels, another first for Porsche. While the regular GTS cabriolet can also be fitted with 20-inch front and 21-inch rear rims with the same RS Spyder design, they only come in satin black. The America Edition’s rollers feature white spokes with a silver face and a red pinstripe around the outer lip. It really helps the special car look, well, special. Porsche says it wanted the look of the America Edition to land somewhere between invisible and loud. And the company nailed it.
A similar aesthetic philosophy appears inside the car, with black leather as its foundation. The only pops of color come from the red-and-white contrast stitching on the upper dash and door panels. The same stitching appears on the armrest on the center console; “America” is also embossed in the leather. Finally, the doorsills feature an illuminated plate that commemorates the 70th anniversary of the 356 America roadster.

Porsche

Porsche

For an extra $7510, there’s an extended interior package that adds a lot more red accents. These extend to the 12-o’clock hash mark on the steering wheel as well as red-and-white stitching on the inside of the steering wheel, the floor mats, the shift boot, and parts of the seats. The gear pattern on the shift knob also turns red, as do the leather loops on the front seats that allow access to the rears. Plus, the key fob is painted to match the car and comes with a stitched and embossed leather pouch.When the 2023 Porsche 911 GTS cabriolet America Edition reaches U.S. dealers near the end of this year, it’ll carry a starting price of $186,370.
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Digital license plates offer a few benefits, like being able to track a vehicle if it gets stolen and the ability to display warnings such as Amber Alerts.Reviver, which has gotten approval to sell its high-tech plates in Arizona and California, can now add Michigan to its list and claims to have more than 10 states lined up to be next.Reviver’s digital plates have a subscription fee of between $20 and $25 a month to keep them connected, and dealers who sell them are promised “substantial revenue share opportunities” each time they sell a digital plate.It took a little longer than expected, but Michigan is now the third state where drivers can order a digital license plate for their cars. The digital plates, which are legal to use in all 50 states as well as Canada and Mexico, come with a monthly subscription fee of between $20 and $25, depending on the model.

Reviver

Reviver, the company behind these connected, electronic replacements for a simple piece of metal, touts a number of benefits of digital plates. Reviver calls them RPlates, and the digital plates make it possible to track the car if it gets stolen. The company also says it’s easier to renew and register a digital plate than it is to get a new sticker for your current plate. In fact, digital plates don’t display any registration expiration information since, when the registration expires, the plate simply reads “invalid” until the plate has been renewed. Thanks to their cellular data connection, digital plates can also be used to display warning messages, like Amber Alerts.

Reviver

Reviver

Choices: Hard Wired or Battery Powered A new-plate fee for a standard Michigan plate is currently as low as $5, but to offer these features, Reviver charges a monthly subscription of $19.95 a month for a battery-powered model that includes a replaceable battery that should last for five years or $24.95 a month for the professionally installed, hard-wired model. These are updated prices from when we spoke with Reviver founder Neville Boston in November 2020.

The Michigan Secretary of State has not yet updated its website to take digital license plates into account, but Arizona, where digital plates have been legal since January 2019, makes it clear that the state does not get any extra revenue from the sale of these plates. In March, Reviver announced that more than 100 car dealers had joined its Auto Dealership Partner Program, making it easier for car buyers at these locations to get digital license plates for their new cars. Reviver pitches the program to auto dealers with an opportunity for “substantial revenue share opportunities from each plate sale.”

Reviver

Reviver has been working on digital license plates since 2009, which are also available in California. In late 2020, the company said it would bring the new plates to Michigan in 2021, with Georgia and Texas up next. That timeline obviously shifted, but today Reviver says that there are “more than 10 additional U.S. states” in “various stages of adoption.” The state of Florida, for example, filed legislation to authorize Reviver’s plates in early 2021, and the Colorado House of Representatives is also working on approving the plates. Looking further ahead to a time when these kinds of plates can be used in every state and country, one could imagine a future use case where vehicle designers integrate the license plate into the vehicle itself.
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Our readers and viewers tend to have good ideas, so we went with a crowd-sourced challenge for this week’s episode of Window Shop. With the budget set at $200,000, the prompt was to find the best car that any given brand ever made—the epitome of the brand, if you will, although this salient point caused much debate throughout the various presentations.Miraculously, none of us picked the same brand, and our five choices included three General Motors divisions—Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Buick—plus Nissan and Lamborghini. Care to hazard a guess who picked which? Our tastes are probably getting predictable at this point, and for this episode the crew was made up of K.C. Colwell, John Pearley Huffman, Tony Quiroga, Jonathon Ramsey, and Joey Capparella.The cars themselves came from a wide range of decades including the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, plus a car with a body from the 1950s but lots of newer parts underneath. This “restomod” created much consternation among our panelists about authenticity. Elsewhere, an Australian-built V-8 sedan prompted calls of hypocrisy, a V-12 supercar lead to questions about currency exchange rates, and two turbocharged V-6 coupes each incited discussions of exactly how impressive various acceleration numbers were for their time.See all this, and more, in the episode above. And please, keep the suggestions coming—we’re always looking for new ideas.

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The 2023 Subaru Crosstrek lineup adds a new trim level called the Special Edition.Along with exclusive Desert Khaki paint, it has dark gray 17-inch wheels, black body trim, and a red-and-black interior.The Special Edition is basically a $600 design package that’s available on the $27,370 Premium trim fitted with the CVT.Khaki has long been a popular color of cargo pants and military garb. It’s also the exclusive paint job for the 2023 Subaru Crosstrek Special Edition, which is a new addition to the lineup. With the unique exterior color comes black body trim (badges, door handles, grille bar, and mirror caps) as well as dark grey 17-inch wheels that are shared with the pricier Sport model.

Officially called Desert Khaki, we think the Crosstrek wears the new hue well. However, while Subaru’s marketing team would like people to think the Special Edition is an overland-oriented model, it’s pretty obvious that it’s basically just a $600 appearance package that’s reserved for Premium models equipped with the 152-hp 2.0-liter flat-four and continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). They have a starting price of $27,370; the Special Edition costs $27,970. It’s simple subtraction, folks.As such, the Crosstrek Special Edition comes with all the same equipment as the Premium trim level. This list of standard features includes heated front seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, a drive mode with hill-descent control, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keeping assist. The Special Edition also comes standard with the larger 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system that costs extra on the Premium.

Subaru

Among the special interior appointments in the new Special Edition is red-and-black cloth upholstery. Red contrast stitching also appers on myriad surfaces throughout the cabin. While Subaru didn’t release many images of the interior, you can catch a glimpse for yourself once the 2023 Crosstreks reach dealers starting this summer.
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• We chose this 1998 Chevrolet Corvette as today’s favorite Bring a Trailer auction.• It’s a particularly nice example with just 20,000 miles and a nice blue exterior color.• It’s currently bidding at just over $10,000 with six days left until the auction ends on Wednesday, June 15.Ask a group of car enthusiasts what they think about the C5 Corvette, and you’ll surely get a wide range of answers. We’re not sure exactly how this generation fits within the pantheon of Vettes, but this particularly nice example up for auction had us looking back at the C5 fondly. It’s a 1998 Corvette with the Z51 Performance package that’s finished in a beautiful shade of blue that Chevy called Nassau Blue Metallic, and it’s for sale on Bring a Trailer, which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

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It just so happens that a Corvette just like this one—in the same hue, no less—beat a 996-generation Porsche 911 in a comparison test from the May 1998 issue of Car and Driver. Back then, we called it a “truly great sports car” and awarded it the win largely based on its price advantage: it cost $42,959 as tested, compared to the Porsche’s $73,319. The C5 also boasted a significant power advantage, with its 5.7-liter V-8 engine producing 345 horsepower and the Porsche’s 3.4-liter flat-six making 296 hp.

We’re not sure exactly what this C5 will end up going for when the auction closes in six days, but we’d think it’ll still maintain a price advantage over equivalent 996 Porsches given what other Corvettes and other 911s have been selling for recently.

Bring a Trailer

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